Washington State bowl game brings perks and extra practices

PULLMAN – On Saturday, Dec. 10, Washington State’s senior football players walked across the stage at Beasley Coliseum to receive their diplomas. They sat through the ceremony, formed various groups for photos – some candid, some formal – then said goodbye to their friends and families and left for the locker room.

They had practice soon, and gowns are not acceptable attire, even on graduation day.

These seniors knew the score, of course, having been to two other bowl games during their time at WSU. The Cougars are pretty used to this bowl business, and hope to apply the lessons learned during last year’s Sun Bowl win over Miami – the program’s first bowl win since 2003 – to this year’s Holiday Bowl matchup against Minnesota.

“We learned that it’s a business trip,” offensive lineman Eduardo Middleton said. “We’ll do the events down there and take them in stride and have fun, but we know that it’s time for football and to do our jobs. That’s why we’re going down there.”

The rewards for a good season in college football are one more game, holidays spent with teammates in an exotic locale and the suite of bowl gifts bestowed upon players by the event sponsors. But another reward is the series of extra practices allotted to qualifying teams.

There is no set number of practices a team is allowed in advance of a bowl game, although it is still bound by the Pac-12 and NCAA’s normal limits on time and physicality. The Cougars coaches relish the extra reps, but do not squeeze out every possible additional practice they could.

“We’re going to try to get a bunch in,” Mike Leach said. “One thing that’s always tricky and that’s coming up is finals week. We don’t want to create any distraction on finals week.”

So this week, for example, the Cougars will spend the first few days worrying about their end-of-semester exams. While the Cougars have hit the practice field a few times since the Apple Cup, the coaches have spent most of their time on the road, recruiting future players.

Another balancing act the coaches must perform is deciding how much time to devote to bowl game preparation – no matter what, Minnesota will be WSU’s most-scouted opponent since the opener against Eastern Washington – and how much practice time to devote to developing younger players.

“These practices have a lot of energy,” said starting safety Robert Taylor. “As for taking it easy, we’re not taking it easy. There are fewer reps here and there but we’re full speed throughout practice. We get a couple reps off here or there, but we’re full speed.”

The Cougars have erred on the side of game preparation with intense practices and upperclassmen participants. While Pullman is currently blanketed in snow, the team has only practiced indoors twice, sharpening its mental edge in the other practices by playing in the cold.

That will likely change as the team pivots toward preparation for its upcoming game in sunny San Diego.

Until then, WSU can effectively steal an extra set of spring practices by giving extra reps to players who were on scout team during the season, giving them more experience than underclassmen at other schools.

“From a coaching standpoint, we have to make sure we take advantage of the time,” defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said. “Every single day out there is a chance for every one of these guys to improve, so obviously preparation is huge for a good Minnesota team, but also quality reps for the young guys, and also the older guys to improve.

“What’s the importance of going to a bowl game?” Grinch added. “Don’t go to a bowl game. You’ll find out.”